


the florist with one flower

by memgril



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Slow Burn, Soulmates, not really romance but the beginning of it, reader gender isn't specified
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 11:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18259943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memgril/pseuds/memgril
Summary: Along the way, you plucked a flower away from the soil of the hell made specifically for him.





	the florist with one flower

**Author's Note:**

> hey! this was a weird plot bunny that came to my head.

Something was broken. You grimaced, but you lived through that drop; you could probably live through anything at this point.

“Howdy! I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flower!”

What.

You didn’t say anything back.

The flower, though, didn’t falter. “You’re new to the Underground, aren’tcha?” Sure, its eager, almost childish voice seemed innocent enough, but your eyes never strayed from the gleaming thorns around the stem.  

There is no way that you were being given a tour by talking flower. Nobody is this nice for no reason, especially a flower, which you haven’t emphasized enough; it was a _flower_.

Still cradling your arm, your voice coming out a little hoarse, you finally said, “Hello, Flowey, can you please help me?” Ignoring the fact that you were talking to a hallucination, you didn’t think those thorns were simply for show. But hey, if he was going to hurt you, at least there wouldn’t be much left of you to finish off.

Flowey looked delighted. “Yes, yes of course I will!” Inching a bit closer, he continued, “You must be so confused. Someone will have to teach you how things work around here, and I guess there’s nobody around here but me! Are you ready?” You didn’t have time to react.  

 Something was being pulled from your chest. A persistent tugging that kept on getting worse and more annoying. Maybe it was the shock settling in, but you felt a disconcerting sense of disassociation, as if you still had a body, but your self was somewhere else.

“What….”. You probably were taking all these new changes a bit too well, but hey, you were going to die here, and it was the least you could do to indulge your brain’s imagination. Totally your imagination.

Flowey, though, didn’t respond. You looked down, ignoring the blackness in your peripherals, and took a step back. Or, tried to. Your body was glued into place. In front of you, you saw a heart. An orange heart, pulsating at regular intervals. You tried to move backwards, but the heart moved instead of your actual body. What?

You looked ahead. Out of all the black, Flowey was the only one clearly outlined. It hurt your eyes, seeing the contrast of his petals and how pretty they were compared to the green-ish stem under that looked anything but. The thorns that stuck out everywhere were almost tipped with grey, but your vision was rather faded and blurry to make sense of any details.

“Flowey? What’s going on?” you tried.

Flowey didn’t say anything. You could make out the slight movement of his eyes as he kept _staring_ at you. Whatever your brain wanted to tell you, you really couldn’t understand.

Well, if he wasn’t going to help you then you had to find a way to get out of this blackness. You looked around. You could now see four bars, _fight_ , _act_ , _item_ , and _mercy_. You wanted to _act_. A rectangle appeared and there was one choice: _check_. You checked.

 

*FLOWEY ATK 0 DEF 0

*he’s never seen something so different yet similar…or familiar before.

 

The rectangle became blank.

“Uh, Flowey,” you spoke up again, trying to ignore the piercing eyes still glued to your heart. “How can I go back to my body? Hello? Flowey?”

A fireball appeared from your right, taking you by surprise; your heart jerked to the left.

Oh.

The ball hit Flowey and he let out a screech that twisted your heart. These hallucinations were unlike anything you had read about before. You tried to move your head to look around for him, but he was gone.

What replaced him though, was a goat. It gave a weird facial expression, something you couldn’t quite decipher, but it was so…human-like. Standing on two legs and wearing a modest dress. Okay then.

“What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor innocent soul. Are you okay, my child?” The feminine voice surprised you. It sounded…caring?

“I’m hurt, can you help me?” You grimaced, ignoring the throbbing in your legs and arms.

She? somehow made the black disappear and you could finally see colours and shapes. You looked around but stopped at the twinge in your neck. At least your eyes are still working. You turned back to the goat.

She was huge. Taller than anyone you had ever seen. Flowey only came up till your mid thigh, but this new…person was at least twice as tall as you.

“My name is Toriel, and I take care of this place. You are the first human here in a while. Let me get you healed up enough to reach my house and then I can finish your care.” She smiled. Toriel, again, just like Flowey, seemed cheerful and caring enough. You couldn’t fully trust her, but you were going to die. And she did assume that Flowey was torturing you. You were injured and alone. Backed into a corner.

“Okay,” you said.

She knelt and touched your bare arm. Your shirt had been torn away, a nasty gash in place. Your eyes travelled to your legs, absorbing the scrapes and dried blood. How long were you out? You had no sense of time. Your ankles were swollen and at this point you were numb to most of the pain, most of it reduced to a dull throbbing.

“I am going to cast some healing magic, child,” Toriel said calmly. As if this wasn’t her first rodeo. Magic, though?

Just as you were about to open your mouth to deny the existence of such a thing, a green hue covered her hand and spread around your body. Your struggle was futile.

You felt like you were going to pass out.

The pain lessened.

It was almost surreal, and your brain just couldn’t come up with an explanation to describe the relief that you felt as the pains and aches, some of which you didn’t know even existed, were reduced to a much, much more manageable amount.

You audibly sighed. This was amazing. It felt like going to the bathroom just as your bladder was about to burst. Even better, in fact. Like agonizing for hours over an important exam only to find it extremely easy.

Toriel smiled, still grasping your arm. “This is the most that I can do until we reach my house. Are you able to stand, child?”

You tested your legs, and after a moment of gaining strength, pushed yourself up to your knees, and finally stood. A bit wobbly at first, but Toriel was an excellent support. “Thanks,” you managed.

“Now, allow me to guide you through the catacombs. It is a confusing place for newcomers, but you will get accustomed to it in no time,” she said with a smile. You couldn’t help but give a small one back.

As you walked together, you leaning on her for strength but also managing to put a surprising amount of weight on your legs, she filled you in on some basics of the Underground, as it was called. The idea of puzzles seemed weirdly ineffective to you, but you didn’t argue with her. Again, this clearly wasn’t the first time she had done something like this.

After guiding you through a lot of long rooms, and flipping some switched with arrows pointing at them, and even walking through a bridge of spikes, you reached the Dummy.

In a world filled with monsters, you were going to practice fighting a dummy. But apparently you were also supposed to rely on Toriel to come and save you, which would clearly not do. You had to do something yourself. Maybe training? Try to get your defense up? The idea of accidentally killing someone did not resonate well with your mind, or your stomach.

You pressed _fight_. A fast-moving line came up, and you stopped it on the green. The dummy disappeared.

“Oh,” Toriel said. “I told you to wait for me to arrive. Well, I suppose you have learned your lesson. Do not worry, though, for as long as you do not leave the Ruins I will always come to save you,” she said. Your heart almost swelled at that, but it really was meaningless. You couldn’t rely on a stranger, nonetheless a goat one as a result from your fever dream.

She took you past a long hallway with a rather large pillar next to the exit, and before she left you, she said, “I have something to take care of. I am entrusting you with a cell phone, and if you need anything, call me, okay?” Sudden, but what were you really expecting? That she takes you in as one of her own?

 She put a hand on your head, warming the area. You smiled at her, replying with a single “Thank you,” eagerly taking the phone from her other palm.

Toriel walked through a doorway you didn’t see before, and then you were alone.

What were you supposed to do now? The plan was to get to Toriel’s house, and maybe she would heal you fully and then…well, you didn’t know. Well, there was also the fact that she might have just left you out here to die instead of taking you to her house and then killing you. Endless possibilities, really.  

The ancient cell phone had one bar of charge left, forcing you not to explore too much. You walked aimlessly for a little bit before you felt something ruffling behind you.

You turned around.

Nothing.

You kept on walking. Too silent. You felt something behind you again.

You turned around. Again.

Flowey.

His eyes were staring right through you. Does this guy not know…well, he’s a flower, after all.

“Hello, Flowey,” you said, trying to be at least a little polite. Toriel clearly had a bad opinion of him and since she hasn’t done anything to hurt you, you trusted her. To be fair though, Flowey didn’t do anything bad to you either. What did you want to do? Talk to him or run away?

“Hello.” Short and clipped. That was a change from when you first met. What happened to the childish personality?

“Did…did something happen? When you were looking at my heart?” you said. Flowey looked away, and you could see a little splotch of red on either side of his face. Blushing? You already assumed that Flowey wasn’t a regular flower, and you were pretty curious about how close he was to humans. Did he even count as a monster? And why would he blush about such a thing?

At his silence, you spoke up again, “You know, Flowey, this is awfully one-sided,” you laughed a little. “What’s with all the quiet and staring?”

“I suppose I didn’t tell you about SOULs properly, did I?” He chuckled a little bit. “They’re the culmination of your being. It’s everything that makes you, well, _you_.” He still wasn’t looking at you.

“And?” you were pretty confused. So he literally took out your soul, just to…look at it?

“This wasn’t supposed to happen. This was a mistake.” He finally, _finally_ , looked at you.

“Uh, I’m sorry?” you hesitantly apologized. You blinked.

You were talking to empty air.

That conversation, you decided, was entirely too short. You had to find a way to contact him, or something. Wouldn’t be good to have some random plant having a weird grudge on you. You had to ask Toriel about this when she came back.

She did, eventually, come back, and she seemed surprised for some reason.

“My child, I must admit I did not actually think that you would obey my instructions so well,” Toriel said, a light tone to her voice. She held a rather full bag in her paws, and you were dying to ask her about its contents. Besides, you had resisted the temptation of exploring because your body still wasn’t in its best form. Toriel did wonders on you, but apparently that wasn’t the full extent of your treatment, so you held off. For now.

“I can’t reveal my baggage so quickly,” she replied when you asked, giving you a quick wink. Puns? You certainly hadn’t expected that.

“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t say that,” you said with a smile, “but to change the subject, and I know it’s sudden, but can you tell me more about Flowey?”

For a second you regretted bringing it up so quickly, especially to someone that was basically a stranger, but you seriously wanted to know. Considering the long, awkward silence between you two, it may have been the wrong thing to say. Just as you were about to laugh it off and tell her to forget about it, she spoke.

“He appeared one day,” she said with a rather grim look on her face, “and we saw him from time to time, but he wouldn’t talk with anyone.” She kept her gaze ahead, and you could begin to see the silhouette of a huge tree blocking the way.

“That’s strange,” you replied, “is he a monster?”

Toriel laughed, “Yes, of course he is. Why wouldn’t he be? We welcomed him with open arms.” Then, “Shame he’s so cold to everyone,” you heard her mutter.

“When he engaged me in the fight, he…” you started, but then closed your mouth with an audible click. Maybe it wasn’t best to spill everything to her.

“Yes?” Toriel inquired. She had been rather quiet ever since you brought up Flowey, and you felt almost bad for not telling her what was plaguing your mind.

“Nevermind,” you said. “This tree; I’ve never seen one as big as this.” It was true. Both you and Toriel now stopped in front of it.

“Yes, this tree is very special,” replied Toriel with a gleam in her eyes. The tree was a good change of subject.

“Yeah? Why is it so big then? Do you feed it with your magic?” you jokingly asked. She really was a tall woman.. goat? You don’t know enough about this society to know whether it is socially acceptable to ask someone what their species was. Maybe you were just expected to know, or maybe you were not expected to ask. True, Toriel and Flowey were the only monsters you had seen so far but they were both able to identify you as a human instantly. You really had to read up on monster species.

“…or butterscotch?” you looked up to see Toriel gazing down at you expectantly. Oops.

“I’m sorry, maybe repeat that again?” you asked sheepishly, and Toriel just shook her head at you.

“Maybe it’s best that we get you a nice bed to sleep in,” she replied. Although you could feel the tendrils of fatigue all around you, you weren’t sure if you should sleep at her house. Motherly vibes or not, she was a monster and you were a vulnerable and injured human.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to get much sleep,” you said. “But we probably should sit down for a bit.” You gazed at the large wall of bricks in front of you. “Do you know how long it will take us to get there?”

“This is my home,” Toriel giggled, opening the door.  

“Oh,” you said.

Oh indeed. That large recliner looked amazing for reading by candlelight while burritoed in a blanket. Toriel’s place was definitely aesthetic. You could really see yourself liking it.

Toriel led you to the dining room and you seated yourself while she got the medicine from the kitchen.

“Candy?” you asked, surprised, when she returned.

Toriel smiled. “Yes, monster candy is infused with a more concentrated form of healing magic and is a popular treatment given around here.” Well, you weren’t going to argue against that. How common were dental issues?

You unwrapped the brown candy, playing with it a little and getting your fingers sticky before plopping it in your mouth. It tasted sweet more than anything, and yet again the feeling of healing magic washed all over you. It took a second or two to go down your throat, but then instant bliss spread around you and you felt lightheaded and warm.

“This is amazing,” you said. “Maybe I should get hurt more…” You were laughing, but from your peripheral, Toriel wasn’t.  

She frowned, “No, that is not a funny joke. You are still growing, and there are wounds that even magic can’t fix. Don’t take it so lightheartedly. Addiction is still a very real thing.”

Things that magic can’t fix. Rather out of the blue, and strangely deep for her. Oh, and magic addiction. Interesting.

You were going to reply, but you could feel your muscles relaxing. Surely she didn’t expect you to stay the night? You didn’t have a house anymore. You were stuck inside a mountain without a way out for the foreseeable future. Best thing to be done is to find a hotel, or something. You had your wallet in one of your back pockets. Besides, the Ruins were getting a bit stuffy. Didn’t Toriel mention catacombs around this place?

“Thank you so much for helping me, Toriel,” you started. “But I’m sure you’ve gotten quite sick of me by now. I don’t want to impose on you too much.” After a pause, you continued, “This is your house, Toriel, not mine. Can you lead me to the exit of the Ruins?”

Toriel froze. She fixed you with a hard gaze, something you had only seen once before: when she ‘saved’ you from Flowey. Speaking of which, you probably should get out of this place, someplace where he wouldn’t follow you. Either that or get to the bottom of whatever issue he has with you.  

“My child…” she started. You waited.

“My child, I must admit, I strongly suggest against asking about this….” She tried to dissuade you, but this just made you all the more curious. You pegged Toriel as someone who knows what they’re talking about, and if she’s warning you then there’s definitely a good reason as to why. Still, you couldn’t help yourself. The Underground fascinated you; a whole entire world that you wanted to explore, right at your fingerprints.

“Surely the Ruins isn’t the entire Underground,” you asked, almost nervously. Just to make sure. That would have really been disappointing.

Toriel gave the ghost of a smile, “Of course there’s more than the Ruins. I simply choose not to venture past here.” She gave you a look. “You are older than those that I usually find. More mature, but still a child nonetheless.”

“What’s your point, Toriel? Are you going to let me leave or no?” you asked, feeling slightly miffed. You were not some teenager. You expected to be treated like an adult.

Toriel gave a long sigh. “I was planning on sealing the entrance to Snowdin. So that you wouldn’t be able to leave.”

“Snowdin? How exactly is the Underground connected?” you asked. Does everyone have access to a whole other area in their basements?

“It’s a place that snows forever, with blizzards, storms, all of it,” she said, “and you can think of the Underground as a big house that has one large floor and is connected by doorways. It extends horizontally, and although there still is some verticality to it, it’s mostly just those giant rooms.” She was patient in her explanation. Almost like a teacher.

“Weird,” you decided.

“Weird,” she agreed with a small smile.

“So, can I leave?” you asked, still trying to persuade her.

Toriel sighed again. “I guess I can’t stop an orange soul,” she mused to herself. You didn’t realize that the colour stood for something. Were the colours different for everyone else? Thinking about that hurt your head.

“Help me, Toriel. I want to go to Snowdin,” you urged. You wouldn’t relent.

“Alright then. But take some cinnamon-butterscotch pie with you. Oh, and some snail pie, just in case, oh, and…” Toriel kept on trying to shove things into your arms. While she was leading you down the stairs, you quietly put things on tables and chairs but kept a slice of pie.

You were quite impressed with how many stairs there were. Both of you were quiet as you walked, but you were more excited than anything, really. Finally, after walking down a long hallway, which was rather dark, Toriel stopped in front of a huge doorway.

“This is it,” you said in the silence. You were going to leave. Leave the only place that you had started to consider safe.

Toriel didn’t move.

“Toriel?” Not her too. You didn’t want to deal with that right now.

She jumped but slowly turned around. You could see the beginning of tears. Oh. Your heart squeezed. Maybe demanding to leave was too much for her? But you couldn’t stay. You knew that it would just eat away at you. Safe or not, you had to find a way to get out of here. And Flowey. You had to deal with that issue as well.

“It’s alright. I’m fine,” Toriel said, trying to wipe her eyes with a large paw but failing miserably.

You knew what you had to do. Reaching forward, you encircled your arms around her warm body. It was a nice feeling, sure, but that didn’t mask how much of a terrible person you were. She obviously wanted you to stay. You subconsciously started rubbing her back, trying to calm her trembling. You really didn’t want to deal with a breakdown from her.

Toriel straightened her back. She gently unattached you from her person, and with another deep breath, opened the huge doors.

Snow.

“Snow…” you echoed, breathlessly. It was quiet, except for the small howls of wind that would occasionally displace snow everywhere. There were no clouds in the Underground, yet you could see small flakes that were making their way down. It was chillingly beautiful.

“I have to go now,” Toriel said, stepping back. Her voice already seemed distant.

“But this place is amazing!” you turned around. But there was nobody there. A huge door replaced her. How did you not hear the door closing?

Your stomach sank.

This is what you asked for, wasn’t it? And she did give hints that she wasn’t going to go any further than the Ruins. Why? Why stay in the stale air while she had almost a new world right in her basement? You just couldn’t understand. And now you were alone.

You stood up shakily and started walking forward. You were the only one on the unpaved road, with mountains of snow on either side. A naked forest stretched on as far as the eye could see, not a sound of the critters that you would think would lurk in there.

You reached a hand into your coat pocket and called Toriel. She did say that she would pick up whenever you called.

It rang.

And rang.

And rang.

And rang.

You pressed the red icon and put the damned thing away before you flung it at the nearest tree.

You didn’t know how far or how long you walked, but eventually you reached a weird bridge. It wasn’t held up by anything, and there were weird poles bisecting it. Maybe to keep people out? You could easily fit through though. You carried on.

A rustle.

Stars danced in the corners of your eyes as you spun around.

Flowey.

“Since when did you become such a stalker?” you muttered under your breath, trying to calm yourself.

Flowey gave a small chuckle. Guess he’s not so heartless after all. “Well, usually I’m not like this. You’re different.” He inched a bit closer. Well, more like you blinked and he was a bit closer than usual.

“Oh? How so?” you replied, taking a small step back. His eyes gleamed. Damn, he noticed.

Still, he continued, “I don’t know how to describe it, but after seeing your SOUL… I don’t know.” This was confusing you more than before. He wasn’t a stalker until he saw your heart? Why did every encounter with him leave you with more questions than answers?

“Well, how about you show me your heart and maybe I’ll spaz out too?” You were half joking. Sheesh. The mood was too suffocating. Here he comes with his edginess, right after you were trying to understand what happened with Toriel.

Flowey didn’t think your joke was funny. He started doing his weird blushing again, almost closing his petals in on himself. “No, we are definitely not doing that,” he snapped, but it lacked the bite he was probably trying to go for.

“Why not? It’s just a heart…”

He shook his head, the blush receding. With a tilt to his head, he suddenly spoke. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” Did you see his eyes narrowing? What?

 “Flowey, you’re doing total one eighties. How about you settle on a personality and keep treating me that way?” you replied, rather confused. He goes from cheery, to stalkery, to more confusing than usual, and now he’s being aggressive.

He gave an entirely too human sigh. “Lay low in this place. And stop bringing me up.” He really didn’t need to accentuate his point with the look he sent you.

It’s the cold weather; the only explanation for the blood currently rushing to your face. You only mentioned him once! How could he have known? Creep.  

“Have you been stalking me?” you demanded. Even now? Was this flower never going to leave you alone?

“The walls have ears,” warned Flowey. In a blink, he edged even closer to you, about half an arm’s length between you two now. It was almost funny, you thought, how you were towering over him, how he had to look up to talk with you, and yet he was the one acting all tough and macho. Still, he was kind of…really close…

“This weather is really cold, isn’t it,” you laughed a little and fanned yourself. Anything to keep the fire on your face from being too visible. Geez, why was this making you flustered? He’s a goddamn flower, for god’s sake. He wasn’t even that close either.

“These walls; they also have eyes,” he said, and you didn’t dare blink this time. You were staring at him, and him, at you. He wasn’t leaving why wasn’t he leaving the eyes-

“SANS! WHAT IS THAT?”

Flowey popped out of sight, and you whirled around at the sound. It was grating. You could vaguely see two shapes in the distance. Great, you were spotted by monsters, but you didn’t let yourself be fooled by the high pitch of the voice.

“that’s my new lamp,” you heard. It was impressively deep, probably belonging to the taller one.

You snapped out of your frozen stance and quickly moved to the left, hiding behind a pole. A lamp?

“SANS! I DON’T HAVE TIME TO BE OGLING AT A LAMP! I MUST GO RESET MY PUZZLES…”

You peeked around to see the tall one walking away. The short one though…shit. He was walking straight towards you. Heart racing, you quickly turned your back to the pole and closed your eyes. A shadow fell across you. Tentatively, you opened your eyes.

A monster was standing in front of you. You quickly shut your eyes again.

“human, don’t you know how to greet a new pal?” The short one had the baritone? Interesting. But you didn’t know if you were safe or not, but since he was laughing you might as well.

You opened your eyes, surprised to see a human skeleton hand in front of you. Weird. You quickly stood up, not realizing that in your panic, you had slid down, and took a better look at him. You were taller than him, and him stockier than you. He seemed to have basic human bone structure, although an eye was smoking blue and yellow. You didn’t focus on that much.

“well?” He fixed you with an expectant tilt to his head.

You could probably guess that he was looking for a handshake, but you didn’t really care if he found it particularly rude that you didn’t want to touch him. Instead, you looked at him straight in the eyes.

“You must be Sans, I take it?” you kept your tone carefully neutral. Curious.

His face stayed as solid as a bone. Well, multiple bones held together by some biological adhesive, but you didn’t think it would win you more points if you inquired. This guy was going to be a tough cookie to crack, you thought.

He simply held his hand out further, and with a sigh, you grasped it.

A whoopie cushion. How funny. You simply raised an eyebrow and let go of his hand quickly enough that hopefully he wouldn’t be offended.

“that trick,” he started after a beat, “always works. never fails. nope,” he finished, probably trying to be a bit funny.

“A comedian,” you said. What was this place…

He laughed. You didn’t think it sounded warm. “i have a lot of funny bones in me,” he replied.

“Well, it’s lovely to meet you, but I must be on my way,” you said. This whole interaction was utterly strange, and you wanted to forget it ever happened. And him to forget about you, but you had an inkling that he wouldn’t.

His blue eye glowed for a second before going completely out. “see ya, i guess.”

With a blink, he was gone.

Did every monster have some kind of teleporting power?

“Only him,” a voice said from your right. You let out a scream before your brain caught up to what was going on.

“Flowey!” you admonished. “Were you here the entire time?” You put a hand to your chest as if trying to slow down its heaving.

“So what if I was,” he challenged, and was that a smirk that you saw? Damn flower. How many times did you think of that statement? And why did you feel only fondness and not something more…normal.

“Creep,” you simply said. “Why are you stalking me?”

He had enough dignity to try and look a little offended at that. “Me? A stalker and a creep? Why, you wound me.” Although, it escaped you how a flower can convey so much emotion.

Said flower was going to be the death of you. Why did he have to be a flower, of all monsters. You didn’t think you would ever get past that. And why did he make himself taller….

“I could swear before that skeleton came by you were only at my knees and now, you’re at my bellybutton,” you said. “Trying to compensate for something?” you laughed. The cold was getting to you again.

He got a bit red. Welp. He looked kind of cute. In a flower way, of course.

“I don’t like that skeleton,” you said. Straight up. It was almost funny; Sans was probably the closest you were going to get to something remotely humanoid, but there was that large disconnect and weird awkwardness between you two. Besides, you had learned your lesson. Don’t underestimate short things.

Your companion scoffed. “I don’t like that smiley trash bag either. Too condescending for me,” he sneered. Yikes. Some shared history between those two for sure. But why would a flower and a skeleton come into contact or have any mutual interests?

To be fair, you and Flowey were bonding over mutual dislikes. A human and a flower. Who would’ve thought?

 There was still the question of what you will do now, but for the moment, you didn’t let yourself think about that. So far, this day has been surreal, and it kept on getting weirder and weirder. But for now, you were sitting, leaning on a pole, and talking with a creepy flower about how you both don’t like a skeleton.

You couldn’t help but let a small, sardonic smile move across your face. Flowey looked up, his eyes locking on your mouth, reddening yet again. You didn’t comment.

“Flowey, you still haven’t explained what’s going on…” you trailed off. That thing with your heart kept on resurfacing just as you tried to clear your mind.  

He let out a small sigh, a funny contrast to his usual child-like voice. “Fine. Our SOULs. They’re connected,” he started, making a point of looking away from you. “Human SOULs are much more powerful than normal monster SOULs. As it stands, you are the only human in the Underground,” he said with a small laugh.

The only human. But still….

Your eyes narrowed. “How do you fit in this then?” Wasn’t Flowey a regular monster?

Flowey now looked at you, the ghost of a smile on this small face, as if reading your mind. “I’m not just any monster you can get on these roads.” A vine erupted from the ground, and you jerked backwards, surprised.

Flowey fully turned towards you. His black eyes bored into yours, and you had the feeling that he was looking through you. “We have the power of the stars,” he whispered.

“The…stars?” you hesitantly repeated, looking up. As expected from being inside a mountain, it was just dark. No sky. No stars.

“You haven’t noticed?” he said, astonished. “There are many in the Ruins. You must’ve seen them…” His gazed turned contemplative. What was this deluded flower talking about?

The same vine-tendril-thing, now reanimated, slithered towards you. You were transfixed. It reached up, gently touching your legs, going up your chest, but stopping before it reached your face. You couldn’t breathe. It was hard, cold, but none of the thorns pricked you. Flowey leaned forward.

Another vine broke from the ground behind you and you were too scared…or perhaps, too stunned, to turn around. You felt it go behind your back, finally stopping, but only to extend to wrap around a lock of hair.

“If you can’t see the stars, then maybe our SOULs are connected in another way…” still whispering, you both didn’t move, although his face was red. Tomato red. This creep… you should have pushed him off, or at least done anything; he was a monster, for god’s sake. A monster! A flower. You shouldn’t be feeling this.

 “When I looked at your SOUL, I was mesmerized. That’s what I was feeling,” Flowey said, looking rather abashed. You broke eye contact, squeezing your eyes shut. Why was your heart fluttering so rapidly? Why were there butterflies begging to be let out in your stomach? Why you, of all people?

Flowey continued as if nothing happened. “I couldn’t move. I thought, maybe it was because we are the gods of this world. Maybe.” The tendril around your hair gave a tug, making you jump, only for you to feel it extend even further, almost caressing your cheek. Was this really happening?

“But no,” he said. Still talking. Would that mouth of his ever close? “No. Our SOULs…” He paused.

“They are destined for one another. Made for one another. Their sole creation, their purpose, was for each other. A monster and a human.” His voice was still gentle, low enough to be whispering directly in your ear, sending shivers down your spine.

You couldn’t do this. You were going to burst. “Flowey…” you rasped. “Out of all the crazy things you’ve done so far…”

The tendrils slid away from you. It was sudden. Harsh. You almost cried out at the lack of contact. Did you say something wrong? This was all so sudden…

“I’m not crazy,” he snapped. “Trust me, I only pieced this together right now. A human without power, yet made for me? Made for each other?”

“I don’t understand,” you said. Monsters and humans and SOULs…

“I know a doctor that specializes in SOUL magic,” Flowey replied, almost rushing. “D-don’t reject this,” he added, looking downwards. Reject?

“Doctors? You guys have doctors here?” you exclaimed. Change the subject.

Flowey gave you a strange look. “Of course we do,” he said, a bit affronted. “Either way, we need to go there. Hotlands. That’s where she is,” he said. Welp. You had nothing better to do.

Standing up, you winced at the resulting cracks of various bones. You brushed off your thighs, and looking at Flowey expectantly, said, “Lead the way.”

He looked shocked. “I’ll have to get on you,” he said after a second, and before you replied, you felt his tendrils going up your back and finally, he situated himself on your shoulder.

“Some warning would have helped,” you muttered a little, but you weren’t too mad. Sure, he was creepy with some weird mood swings and tended to ramble about how you both were connected somehow, but his weight helped give you a sense of stability in this strange, new world. At least you weren’t alone.

“Off we go,” he said.

You started walking. Together.


End file.
